Tuesday, November 20, 2018
Terrorism in Tolkien's Works
For some readers, Tolkien's Middle-earth texts seem to resonate differently after 9/11 and other terrorist occurrences in this century than they did for readers 30-50 years ago, even though no terrorists as we think of them today appear in Tolkien's works. What then is the relationship between terrorism and Tolkien's works? Do Tolkien's works suggest anything that connects with terrorism as we know it today? Why or why not?
3 comments:
After going back to the first posting of this prompt, I realize I didn't answer the questions as I wish I would have. So, I will re-answer them here. I believe that Tolkien's works should, and do, resonate differently, as opposed to before events such as 9/11, the Khobar Towers, the Paris bombing, and the New Year's Eve sexual assaults in Germany amongst many, many others. I do think though, there are many different ways to interpret the relationship between terrorism and Tolkien's works. I believe that certain characters already embody aspects of terrorism but that after events which affect societies in such a grand fashion, citizens have no choice but to read terrorism into the texts. The idea that another person, or group of persons, could do such terrible things seems like an act of fiction. As such, works of fiction become a place in which we put terrorism. I feel that Tolkien's works feed off of terrorist acts.
Furthermore, I feel that Tolkien's works could be interpreted to connect with terrorism as we know it today. Terrorism is any act in which is used to instill terror into another entity. Which I feel is exactly what characters like Sauron and Morgoth, try to accomplish. Furthermore, I find that their entire institution is comparable to ISIS. They both have "secret" training camps. They both recruit who ever they can. They both want to dominate as many people and lands as possible. However, I feel that the degree to which readers find terrorism differs based on experience.
When I first read through this prompt, I didn't really know what to think.
Personally, I have never connected Tolkien's works with modern terrorism or terrorism of any kind for that matter. To me, Sauron and Morgoth are like evil in many other stories. (Satan, the White-Witch in Narnia, and Voldemort) These evils have known leaders, seeking to dominate the world through fear and force. In this way, I believe Tolkien's works contain terrorism. As I write this, I think of Saruman as the most terrorist aspect of Tolkien. Sauron and Morgoth use an approach of brute force to gain influence. Saruman uses lies, deceit, and powerful speaking to control the people around him and spread his influence (e.g. Wormtongue and Bill Ferny) instead of brute force. This reminds me the most of the terrorism of the Axis in WWII, but I guess the same could be said about Sauron and Morgoth early in the story.
I don't think modern terrorism is relevant in Tolkien. To me, modern terrorism is the use of small isolated attacks to instill fear in the population. This differs from the fear created by Sauron and Morgoth through their armies. Modern terrorism is usually a one-way fight and not a large battle with many armies. Successful attacks spread fear much greater than the damage to people that they actually cause and divide us much more than the loss of any major battle would in the past. One of the reasons why modern terrorism is so effective is that terrorists are 1. human just like us, and 2. living amongst us. For the most part, Sauron and Morgoth's armies were made up of evil creatures and their followers certainly didn't live among the "good" races in Middle-earth.
I realize that this is a difficult and touchy subject to approach and I'm excited to read other comments!
I believe that perhaps Tolkien's experiences with the horrendous acts of warfare in the great war he was involved in led him to warn of the way wars would be fought in the future. The fear of war was already in the hearts of millions and the terror felt by the atrocities of what happens when fighting great wars and sides try to figure out ways of ending the war sooner and create forms of death that do nothing but inspire terror and fear. Tolkien's works were partially centered on fear and the nature of evil which controls the emotional well being of the people experiencing the dreadful engine of warfare. I think Tolkien's works are connected with terrorism today because both are dealing with the chief emotion of fear and what that fears does to someone. I believe that Tolkien saw that the great world wars would only continue to get worse until they evolved into something like terrorism and would create a fear on such a different scale because you don't know where a terrorist will strike next and terrorists do not distinguish targets and everyone is a target, including woman and children. So, like In Lord of the Rings, Sauron does nothing but create fear and distrust on the same kind of scale and with the wars being fought in Middle-earth kind of parallel the wars fought in our primary world. Terrorism is a very sensitive subject and I hope I didn't offend anyone with my comment.
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